The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 17, 2001, Page A2, Image 2
'(Che Gamecock
Special to The Gamecock
Jeanna Raney, who would have been a senior, will take the semester off from school while she
fulfills her duty as Miss South Carolina and prepares for the Miss America pageant.
THERE SHE IS: ‘Suddenly; there I was in the spotlight ’
USC student heading
to Miss America pageant
by Ginny Thornton
The Gamecock
While most USC students are heading
back to Columbia for the fall semester, one ,
USC student will be going to Atlantic City,
N.J., to compete in the Miss America
pageant.
Junior Jeanna Raney, an Inman native,
was crowned Miss South Carolina 2001
on July 14 at Spartanburg Memorial Au
ditorium. She will represent South Car
olina in the Miss America pageant on Sept.
22.
Two other USC students were among
the top five finalists at the Miss South Car
olina pageant. Miss Greater Irmo, Tiffanie
Wallace, third runner-up, won a $1,600
scholarship. Miss North Myrtle Beach
Courtney Stangry, fourth runner-up, won
a $1,400 scholarship.
Raney, formerly Miss Greater Greer,
immediately began her job as Miss South
Carolina. On the morning after she was
crowned, she found herself holding a press
conference and speaking to a church group.
“Suddenly, there I was in the spotlight,”
she said.
This could be overwhelming for many,
but not for Raney, who’s quick to say the
pageant circuit is hard work.
“I treat it like a full-time job because
it is. I’ve been preparing for this my whole
life,” she said.
Raney was the first Miss South Car
olina to take part in a weeklong, statewide
tour after her crowning. She awoke daily
at 5 a.m. to meet and greet fellow South
Carolinians. Raney doesn’t seem to mind
her rigorous schedule, but she’s not an av
erage college student.
Raney has dreamed of being Miss
South Carolina since she was a small child.
“Every year, my parents took me to
the pageant because it was in Spartanburg,
near our home. They always told me I could
win it one day if I wanted to.”
Raney’s father, Sam, helps her drill for
interviews every night for an hour or more,
quizzing her on current events. A financial
planner, her father also has influenced her
decision to major in business. She wants
to work in finance, particularly by helping
women to become financially independent.
Her love of photography led to her minor
in media arts.
An unfortunate influence on Raney’s
decision to compete in the Miss South Car
olina pageant was the suicide of her moth
er two years ago. Before that tragedy, Raney
was unsure whether she wanted to com
pete in the Miss America circuit, known
for its emphasis on community service.
“Soon after she died, I realized I be
lieved strongly enough in the cause of pre
venting suicide to pursue it as my platform.
I wanted to teach other people about the
warning signs of suicide and how to pre
vent it.”
Raney is both passionate and knowl
edgeable about suicide prevention. She be
lieves South Carolina needs a law requir
ing that the mentally ill receive adequate
health insurance coverage.
“We’re one of the few states that has
n’t passed this already,” she said.
Raney is a partner with the Jason Foun
dation of Nashville, Tenn., a suicide pre
vention program, and with the S.C. De
partment of Mental Health.
When she speaks to groups, she in
cludes various statistics about suicide, its
warning signs and the story of her personal
experience, as well as the chance to sign
a suicide prevention pledge.
Raney has begun full-time preparation
for the Miss America pageant. She leaves
her house at 6 a.m. each morning to work
out with a personal trainer. She then spends
the morning at the Miss South Carolina
office in Greenville. “We made a list of all
the new clothes I need,” she said. “Re
hearsal outfits, South Carolina T-shirts, five
Miss S.C. SEE PAGE A13
Police still searching
for missing student
by Greg Hambrick
The Gamecock
The two-month search for a
missing USC student is now focused
on the car he was driving when last
seen.
Shelton Sanders, a 25-year-old
student in the College of Hospital
ity, Retailing and Sport Manage
ment and an employee in the School
of Medicine, has been missing since
June 19.
Police say the car Sanders was
driving, a 1988 Oldsmobile Regency
with license plate 214-LZM, is the
best chance they have to find
Sanders.
Sanders was last seen heading
from Columbia to his Rembert home
in Sumter County. He commuted
every day from Sumter to Colum
bia on U.S. 76-378.
“It is our suspicion that he may
not have left Columbia,” said Chief
Deputy Anthony Dennis of the
Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
On June 19, Sanders spent the
evening making plans for a bache
lor party.
After calling his father at about
9 p.m. to say he was on his way
home, Sanders went to the Embassy
Suites and the Wellesley Inn in Co
lumbia to help friends plan the par
ty. He was last seen leaving at
9:51 p.m.
Officers have said the disap
pearance is suspicious.
“We feel like there’s someone
that has knowledge of his where
abouts, if foul play is involved,”
Sumter County Sheriff Tommy
Mims said.
Police have confirmed that
Sanders’ cell phone and credit cards
haven’t been used since his disap
pearance.
Both Sumter and Richland coun
ties took quick action to find Sanders.
Fliers were posted across campus
in hopes of obtaining new informa
tion, and family and friends offered
a $10,000 reward for information
leading to his return.
The reward was announced in
early July by the Sumter County
Sheriff’s Office after meeting with
the Richland County Sheriff’s Of
fice and State Law Enforcement Di
vision officials.
After several unsuccessful leads,
authorities hoped the reward would
lead to a break in the case, but the
search continues.
Since Sanders’ disappearance,
authorities have conducted aerial
and ground searches of Sumter and
Richland counties.
Dennis said his office continues
to update the Sanders family on the
investigation. Sanders’ father, Judge
William Sanders, is a long-serving
magistrate in the Sumter area.
“Every day is like a year to us,”
Rembert Mayor Gary Metts told The
(Sumter) Item in July. “Every hour
that goes by make this that much
harder.”
Sanders has worked as an MIS
systems analyst in the department
Shelton Sanders
of neuropsychiatry
and behavioral sci
ence in the School
of Medicine for a
year and a half.
He is an un
dergraduate pursu
ing a degree in Ad
mini strative
Information Man
agement, and he is
expected to gradu
ate this December.
“He was excited about gradua
tion,” said Ansley Roberts, a USC
administrator and Sanders’ co-work
er. “He had already told us what kind
of cake he wanted for his going
away party. None of this makes any
sense,” she said.
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Bush appoints Thurmond Jr.
as highest attorney in S.C.
by Shawn Miller
The Gamecock
Strom Thurmond Jr. will become
the youngest U.S. attorney in the
United States and South Carolina’s
top federal prosecutor when he is
confirmed by the Senate Judiciary
Committee in the coming weeks.
Thurmond Jr., 28, was nomi
nated for the post, which oversees
federal prosecutions in South Car
olina, by President Bush in early
August at the request of the elder
Thurmond.
Thurmond Jr., who graduated
from USC’s School of Law in 1998,
is an assistant state prosecutor in
Aiken County with less than 3 years
experience practicing law.
Thurmond Jr. “didn’t set the
(jlassroom on fire with his brilliance,
but he didn’t turn the lights out ei
ther,” said Eldon Wedlock, one of
his former law professors.
After law school, Thurmond Jr.
worked for former U.S. attorney Pe
te Strom, assisting in more than 15
trials before taking the Aiken post.
The position of U.S. attorney
for South Carolina opened when J.
Rene Josey, 40, appointed by for
mer President Clinton, resigned
on Feb. 24 after a five-year career
notable for numerous high-profile
prosecutions.
“I assumed that if I didn’t re
sign, sooner or later I’d be asked
to resign” because of the new Re
publican administration, Josey said.
U.S. attorneys serve four-year
terms and earn $118,400 per year.
William Cromwell, U.S. attorney
for Arkansas, said his office deals
i
with everything from prosecuting
bank robbers to lawsuits for new
federal highways.
“Each office is really an indi
vidual unit and would have differ
ent needs. (Thurmond Jr.) might
want to try a lot of cases, or he might
just want to be an administrator.”
Since Sen. Thurmond request
ed that his son be nominated to the
post, a traditional courtesy granted
by the president, and since he is the
secondrranking Republican mem
ber on the committee that will con
firm Thurmond Jr., many have cried
foul at what appears to be blatant
nepotism.
Bill Moore, a political scien
tist at the College of Charleston, '
said, “It’s obvious that a 28-year
old two years out of law school
'Thurmond Jr. seepageai2
Ann Marie Miani/The Gamecock
Colleagues, friends, his family and former and current students joined Henry Price at his last copy editing class.
He was presented with a cake and edited it with a tube of red icing. Price took over as interim dean of the College
of Journalism and Mass Communications on Thursday.
Journalism college
names interim dean
“It’s an interesting situation to be an
interim. ... [But] if you don’t move ahead,
you fall backward.”
Henry Price
Interim dean,
College of Journalism and Mass Communications
by Mackenzie Clements
The Gamecock
The College of Journalism and
Mass Communications has named
a new dean — at least temporari
ly
Henry Price, a longtime pro
fessor at the college, took over as
interim dean on Thursday after the
retirement of Ron Farrar, who
served as interim dean for the past
two years.
Price joined USC’s faculty in
1969.
Since then, he has taught copy
editing and public opinion and pro
paganda courses.
He has also served a chairman
of faculty senate, chairman of the
college’s print sequence and asso
ciate dean for academics and un
dergraduate studies.
race s appointment is tor one
year or until the college selects a
permanent dean.
Since Dean Judy VanSlyke
Turk left the position two years
ago, the university has been con
ducting a national search for a re
placement.
Three finalists for the job were
named in September, two of whom
withdrew their names from con
sideration by the end of the year.
The university was unable to en
tice the remaining candidate,
Will Norton from Nebraska, to take
the position.
The appointment of another in
terim dean came to be a necessity
when Norton withdrew, Price said.
Though accepting the position
of interim dean won’t allow him
to serve on the faculty search com
mittee for the new dean, Price re
mains confident “that we’ll get our
selves a new dean this time around.”
Price said he thinks the next
person for the job should be some
one “who has ideas” and who
brings an understanding “of the
philosophy that underlies journal
ism education (and) what a jour
nalist’s job is in the greater scheme
of things.”
Price also said the new dean
should be deeply committed to get
ting new facilities for the college,
which is located in the basement
of the Coliseum. For years, the col
lege has played wait-and-see with
the administration over their even
tual move to a renovated Petigru
College.
But until the new dean is on
board, Price plans to move forward.
“It’s an interesting situation to
be an interim.” he said, “because
there are a lot of people who say,
‘Well, let’s just sit here on neutral
until we do get a new dean on board
and let him make the decisions.’...
[But] if you don’t move ahead, you
fall backward.”
Price taught his final copy edit
ing class Aug. 8. Several dozen
friends, colleagues and former stu
dents showed up about 10 minutes
into the class to throw an im
promptu celebration, which in
cluded a cake in need of editing,
for the end of Price’s teaching ca
reer.
More than 2,000 students have
taken his notoriously difficult edit- (
ing classes since 1969. Price esti- '
mates that he has graded more than
500,000 copy editing labs during
his career at USC.
“Dr. Price has been a mainstay
of the journalism school, and every- I
one knows it,” said Chris Winston,
business editor at the Spartan
burg Herald-Journal and a 1996
graduate from the College.
“Whenever you interview at
a newspaper in the Southeast, they
all want to know how you did in
Dr. Price’s class. I’m always more
than happy to brag on my B+,”
Winston said.
The news desk can be reached at
gamecockudesk@hotmail.com